Whatever Happened To Supermodel Adrien Agreste?
by Artemis J. Halk
Summary: Part 12/? of my "All Grown Up" series. Adrien flies to Tokyo following the news that his father had a near-fatal heart attack. He was ready for things to be better between him and Gabriel. Reality can be brutal sometimes.


This was something that was exceptionally difficult to write, for multiple reasons. However, I'm the kind of person that enjoys having closure, even in a world that I created.  
This is set several years after the start of the series, about four years after Adrien left the fashion world. (And before anybody asks, no, this is not the end of the series! There will be more! And more stuff about the years in-between, too. So don't worry!)

* * *

"Jesus fuck, what time is it?" Marinette complained as the room was lit up with the blue light of Adrien's phone and was filled with tinny music.

Adrien fumbled for his phone, wondering who could be calling at such an unearthly hour. "It's Nathalie," he said with a frown. "You know that she wouldn't call unless it was an emergency. Full stop." He answered. "Hello?"

"Adrien? I'm sorry about the hour, but it's your father-"

* * *

Adrien stared at the knick-knacks displayed in a kiosk in the airport in Tokyo. Phone charms and covers, each one depicting some unusual superhero. He snapped a photo of some of them and sent them to Marinette with the caption, "We might have to ask the heroes here how they did it! I feel like it took us way too long to defeat Hawk Moth!"

He moved on to the next one, not really looking for anything in particular, but he sort of wanted to get something cheesy and fun for everybody. But he didn't quite know what, only that he'd know it when he saw it.

This kiosk had a bunch of picture frames, some of them with English words on them, others with kanji. Cheesy words, like "love" or "laughter". For the first time since he'd quit being a model, Adrien was grateful for his Mandarin lessons as a child, since it at the least allowed him to read the kanji in Japan. They weren't quite the same, but most of the general meanings were, at any rate.

A golden frame caught his eye. "家族" was written on one corner. Family.

Adrien figured that that's what he was here for. If you could call it that. Gabriel was hardly a father to him. He'd been emotionally distant all of Adrien's life, and things only got worse after Adrien's mother left. He pushed Adrien into the fashion word, wanting to capitalize on his son's natural beauty. He didn't care what Adrien wanted, only what was best for the business. He told Adrien to take Mandarin and piano and fencing because it would look good. It didn't matter that Adrien wanted none of that.

Adrien knew that behavior like that wasn't normal, and the older he got, the more and more he began to realize it. However, it wasn't until he was with Marinette, saw the way that she interacted with her family, that he realized that the things Gabriel had done to him was some form of abuse.

Not letting Adrien eat meals, keeping him on a strict diet, forcing him to count calories because Adrien needed to keep his figure. If not for the fact that Adrien could leave at any time as Chat and get food, he probably would have gone mad from the hunger. Not to mention the simple fact that being Chat provided a much better work-out regimen than any trainer could ever provide.

And then there was the work hours. There had been weeks where the only thing that kept Adrien upright in school was coffee. As he looked back, Adrien wondered why none of his teachers ever said anything about how tired that he was all of the time.

Well, maybe they did. Directly to his father. Only he brushed them off, because obviously, can't you see that work is more important than school?

"Ah, Adrien. There you are," Nathalie said as she approached him. She looked polished and poised as ever, if maybe a little bit older than last he remembered.

"Sorry, just looking for some souvenirs. You know, for Marinette and everybody," Adrien said. He grabbed the family photo frame and motioned towards the vendor with his credit card.

"How is she and… um…" Nathalie struggled for a moment. The vendor swiped Adrien's card and wrapped the frame up in tissue paper before he put it into a bag.

"Louise?" Adrien supplied as he took the bag. "They're good. So are Tom and Sabine. They're completely over the moon to be grandparents." He frowned slightly and stopped a few feet away from the kiosk. "They seem to be the only ones, however, as we've heard nothing from my father until you called. We did, however, get your flowers." He put the emphasis on "your", indicating that he knew full-well that Gabriel had had nothing to do with any of that.

Nathalie didn't even pause. She was used to all of that. In a lot of ways, Nathalie was more of a parent to Adrien following the disappearance of his biological mother. She was the one who gave him presents, tucked him in at night, made sure he got to school and to his lessons on time. She never once failed to ask him how his day was.

Not Gabriel.

Never Gabriel.

"Maybe if you actually reminded him of what it is that he's missing out on, he might show some interest," Nathalie said as they stepped out of the airport. Adrien looked over to her— and when had she gotten so short?— and she smiled faintly.

* * *

"I'm glad that you're here, Adrien," Gabriel said from his hospital bed. It was a nice room— only the best for Gabriel Agreste, after all. "The hospital staff has barred anybody from bringing me any kind of work. They also took the TV out after I got angry that I couldn't be there for the fashion shows."

"You just had a massive heart attack, father," Adrien said coolly. "They also said that you nearly had a relapse, which was why they took the TV away."

"Well, I'm glad that you're here, at any rate," Gabriel pressed on. For a moment, Adrien allowed himself to hope that his father was just glad to see him after all this time. "With me on forced bedrest until the hospital discharges me, you'll have to-" He started listing off things for Adrien to do, including putting appearances in at the fashion shows and giving a press conference on the last day.

Adrien sighed heavily to himself as he stood. He didn't even know why he'd thought for one second that Gabriel saw Adrien— his own son— as anything more than another employee.

"Wait, where are you going? I'm not finished yet," Gabriel barked out when he realized that Adrien was leaving.

"I'll have Nathalie tell me the details. You need your rest. I'll come back and visit you again soon, though," Adrien said as he left the room.

He found his father's assistant at the end of the hall, talking with one of the nurses. The nurse bowed to Nathalie as Adrien approached and left.

"Are you finished?" Nathalie asked him curtly. She didn't seem at all surprised that Adrien's visit had lasted less than five minutes. "I take it that he told you all of what he expects for you to do while he is in the hospital?"

"Nathalie, he told me that I needed to hold a press conference for the end of the Tokyo Fashion Week, but can you move it up? To today? As soon as possible, really."

Nathalie looked surprised for a second before she schooled her features. "Yes, of course. I'll see what I can do, and get back to you."

* * *

Following the public news of Gabriel Agreste's heart attack, and word that Adrien Agreste was going to give a press conference, it didn't take long for the press to be gathered in front of the hotel where Adrien had been put up.

"I have the speech your father prepared," Nathalie said as she tried to give Adrien a stack of note cards. "Your father is also not pleased about the change to his schedule."

"I don't care about his speech, so you can keep it," Adrien said with a scowl. "I also don't care about his damned schedule. Let's get this over with."

He strode out from the hallway and out the sliding doors of the hotel. Instantly, cameras started to flash and people started to cry out for Adrien's attention.

"Adrien, where have you been these past four years?"

"What have you been doing all this time?"

"How is your father's condition?"

"Will you be returning to modeling, or will you be joining your father's company as a designer?"

However, Adrien ignored all of them and strode up to the podium. "Thank you all for coming on such short notice. As you are aware, my father, Gabriel Agreste was stricken with a near fatal heart attack two nights ago. He is currently resting comfortably in a hospital, and the doctors are optimistic that he will be able to make a full recovery. I came because he is my father. When I got the call in the middle of the night about this, I felt like I'd had a heart attack of my own."

Adrien paused and looked around at the reporters. They were silent now, waiting for him to continue on. "When I got the call in the middle of the night, I was certain that this was it. My father was going to die. He might have died in the time it took me to get on a plane and come here. However, he did not die in the meantime, but that doesn't mean that I didn't want to see my father. I would have never been able to live with myself if I hadn't."

He reached up and touched the yin-yang, Ladybug-Chat Noir pendant that rested under his shirt. It gave him the emotional strength to continue. "I have since seen my father, and I am confident that a heart attack has not awoken something inside of him that cares about the Adrien Agreste that is his son. He only sees me as an employee, a business asset, a pretty face. This is why I left four years ago. I left my home— my family— in the middle of the night and hopped onto the next plane to Tokyo because I thought that another person in my family was sick. I was wrong, and it was wrong of me to come. I'm going back to the people who actually care about me."

With that, Adrien turned around and went back into the hotel. The reporters called out for him, but he ignored them.

"Adrien…" Nathalie said gently as Adrien stormed past her. He ignored her, too.

* * *

"What the fresh hell was that? I told you to do a press conference on the last day of the Fashion Week, and instead, you somehow manage to smear my entire name through the mud?!" Gabriel yelled at Adrien as he stepped into the hospital room. There was a TV on, and two reporters were talking about the press conference Adrien had given a few hours earlier.

"I only came to give you something," Adrien said simply. He pulled out the picture frame that he'd bought at the airport. In it was a photo of Marinette lying in a hospital bed, looking exhausted but happy. In her arms was a pink-swaddled bundle. Adrien sat on the edge of her bed, looking like the proudest man in the world.

Adrien set the frame on the table next to his father's hospital bed. "In case you wanted a reminder of what it is that you've given up. Her name is Louise." He then turned around and left the room again.

Gabriel just looked shocked, and he stared at the door long after Adrien had left. "Of course he'd name her after his mother," he finally muttered as he turned to look at the photo.

* * *

"You're just in luck, because I finished making these not even half an hour ago," Adrien said cheerfully to the band of students as he pulled the tray out from the display case.

Time passed from Adrien's impromptu trip to Tokyo. The world buzzed about Adrien Agreste's startling announcement for a few weeks, but were then distracted when another supermodel was viciously mauled by a bear.

Adrien vowed to never let thoughts of Gabriel Agreste darken his mind ever again. His father had made it perfectly clear what he thought of his son, and Adrien wanted to just wash his hands of the entire thing. Thankfully, he had wonderful people who did care about him to take his mind off of the trip.

He waved as the students left the shop, cheese danishes in hand, but frowned as a dark town car pulled up in front of the shop. "Who's that?" Sabine asked as she eyed the town car.

"Dunno," Adrien said with some hesitation. They watched as the driver got out and opened the door.

And then the least likely person ever stepped out.

Gabriel Agreste.

"You can go if you want," Sabine said to Adrien quickly when they'd realized who it was. "He hasn't seen you yet." And indeed, Gabriel was looking up at the residence of the building rather than at the bakery.

"No, something tells me that I'm going to have to deal with this sooner or later," Adrien said. "And I'd rather not put this off." He reached up and touched the necklace hidden under his shirt for emotional strength.

Gabriel finally stopped staring at the building and stepped into the bakery.

"Father," Adrien said coolly.

"Adrien," Gabriel said with some hesitation. "I…" He trailed off and shook his head. "I know that there is little that I can say that would somehow make up for all of the emotional damage that I've caused you, first by not being there for you, and then telling you what to do. You were right, and I did treat you like an employee."

He paused, and the two of them stared at one another. Adrien, however, had more than enough patience to wait out his father.

"Maybe not the heart attack, but your press conference made me reconsider things. A lot. And a lot of time of forced bed rest, too," Gabriel finally went on with a heavy sigh. He pulled something out from his jacket pocket. The picture frame Adrien had given him. "And this."

They were both silent again for a long time, uncertain of how to continue.

"I know that this is a lot to take in, but why don't you come upstairs? Marinette is with Louise up there," Sabine said with some hesitation, just to break the ice.

Gabriel offered them a hesitant smile. "I'd love that."

* * *

This was not proof read, so if you spot any errors, please let me know so that I might fix them!

If you enjoyed this, please take a moment to leave a review! They really make my day!


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